Episode 770: Sticky Rice

Spilled Milk

The episode explores the science, history, and cultural significance of sticky rice, particularly within Southeast Asian cuisines like Lao a

Key takeaways

• Sticky rice's characteristic texture is caused by a mutation in the waxy gene, resulting in high amylopectin and very low amylose levels.
• Laos serves as a major epicenter for sticky rice cultivation, with agriculturalists identifying over 5,000 individual cultivars in the region alone.

Main topics

• Etymology of the word 'hopper'
• The science of starch: Amylose vs. Amylopectin

Notable quotes

It is a huge family of varieties, popular mostly in East Asia.

Conclusion

A fascinating deep dive into the botanical, chemical, and cultural lay

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:04) I'm Speaker 2 (0:04) Molly. And Speaker 1 (0:05) I'm Matthew. Speaker 2 (0:05) And this is Spilled Milk, the show where we cook something delicious, eat it all, and you can't have any. And Speaker 1 (0:10) today we're talking about sticky rice. Speaker 2 (0:12) That's right! But first... Oh Speaker 1 (0:15) yeah, yeah. Oh wait, I didn't... Speaker 2 (0:16) Everybody's been waiting. Speaker 1 (0:18) I forgot to look it up. Yeah, Speaker 2 (0:20) so last week, toward the end of the episode, which if you didn't listen to it, it was all about boursin cheese, and you're going to want to listen to it because it was fun. We got ourselves totally tied in knots trying to figure out what a hopper was. So we promised that at the start of today's episode, we would... Well, Mr. Etymology. Oh! Speaker 1 (0:41) Come in. It's me. No, it's me. Come in. Shit. Speaker 2 (0:54) Mr. Etymology, do you have some etymological information for us? Speaker 1 (0:59) I sure do. Okay. So I listened to last week's episode. I was very disappointed in a lot of the things you said. But I understand that you need to know what a hopper is. And I'm here to tell you it's the sheriff guy from Stranger Things. Speaker 2 (1:13) Thank God. I was going to. Speaker 1 (1:15) to Speaker 2 (1:15) say, but I didn't want to make you feel stupid, Mr. Etymology. I wanted you to come visit. Speaker 1 (1:21) There's a mountain in Washington State called Mount Hopper. Okay, here's what a hopper is. A hopper is a storage container used to dispense granular materials through the use of a chute to restrict flow, sometimes assisted by mechanical agitation. So a hopper is like a bucket with a hose coming out of the bottom that stuff in the bucket slowly goes into. So it's a way There's no way to like dispense this stuff at a rate that is lower than if you just took the bottom off the bucket. Hold Speaker 2 (1:51) up. So are you saying that the – hold on. Mr. Etymology, have you ever been to a grocery store with a bulk section? Uh Speaker 1 (1:58) -huh. Speaker 2 (1:58) Okay. So would you say that bulk bins are hoppers? I think Speaker 1 (2:02) that's a hopper. Okay. Like it's not – That one isn't designed to like dispense. I mean, yes, it is. It's designed to like dispense at a constant rate. Like the rate of those things is always way too fast. And Speaker 2 (2:14) always kind of inconstant. Speaker 1 (2:16) It's kind of inconstant. But yeah, I think that's a hopper. It's a bucket or like a bin with an opening at the bottom to let stuff flow out at a slowish rate. Speaker 2 (2:28) Okay. All right. Mr. Etymology, I've noticed that this. There's no actual etymology in this. Do you have any sort of interesting information about the origins of the word hopper? Maybe it comes from Latin passing through the old French for au pair or something like that. Like Speaker 1 (2:48) the au pair garnier? That's right. Okay, hopper. Oh, yeah, from Middle English hoppere, from Old English hoppa, one who hops. What? Speaker 2 (2:59) Oh, wait. I'm sorry. I think I just broke my mic. I screamed so loud. Speaker 1 (3:03) Okay, so here's a picture of a hopper, by the way. So that's a hopper. Speaker 2 (3:06) Okay. That looks like it's on a coffee roaster. Oh, Speaker 1 (3:10) synonym for a feed bin. Where does that come from? I don't know. Oh, wait. So the thing you said about Old English wasn't right? Am I still Mr. Etymology because I'm supposed to know these things? Speaker 1 (3:21) So. Wait, Speaker 2 (3:23) what you said about Old English you made up? Speaker 1 (3:25) No, no, that's real. Okay. Like Old English hopper, one who hops, or hopper, cognate with Dutch hopper, Swedish hoppare, Icelandic hoppare. But like specifically like where does the funnel-shaped bin get its name from and like why does it hop? I don't know. Maybe etymology hasn't figured this out yet. Speaker 2 (3:46) Okay. Well. Mr. Etymology, get back to work. Speaker 1 (3:50) Also slang for a toilet. Goodbye. It was me. Hit the road. Drive safe. Speaker 2 (3:56) You're going to go drop off the kids at the pool? I'm Speaker 1 (3:58) going to go drop off the kids at the hopper. Speaker 1 (4:02) All right, so this episode, this is Matthew again, I'm back. Wow, like. Speaker 1 (4:09) What's like the Oscar for like character work on a podcast? Because like I've got to be in the running. Speaker 2 (4:17) Is your head spinning just from having so many people inside you? Speaker 1 (4:21) Yeah, like Lipton is going to have me on Beyond the Actors Studio. No, Inside the Actors Studio. That guy, Speaker 2 (4:30) what's his name? Lipton. Yeah, Speaker 1 (4:33) heir to the Lipton tea fortune, probably. No, Speaker 2 (4:38) what's his name? Is it James Speaker 1 (4:40) Lipton? Speaker 2 (4:42) I definitely don't have any way to find out. Speaker 1 (4:45) Okay. And yeah, like, and it's called Beyond the Actor's Studio because it's a sequel to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Okay. Well, Speaker 2 (4:53) it's not an actor's studio. It's a podcast studio. It's Speaker 1 (4:56) a podcast studio. Speaker 2 (4:57) Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But like, Speaker 1 (5:01) you've got to admit, like, I do a lot of amazing acting on this show. Speaker 2 (5:04) You do. Okay. Well, so. As everyone knows, today's episode is about sticky rice. Yes. This is something that Matthew researched. Take it away, host Matthew. You Speaker 1 (5:17) know, if I had to guess, I'd say it's called a hopper because, like, when the thing is agitating to, like, get the stuff to come out, it sort of hops around. Speaker 2 (5:23) Probably. Okay, Speaker 1 (5:25) great. Yeah. So I definitely had this first at a Thai restaurant in the U.S. And then at Sarah Jane's Isan Restaurant in Bangkok. I'm sure I had it in Laos when we were briefly in Laos. And of course at Pak Pak in Portland. And I've made it at home periodically ever since like the early 2000s. Speaker 2 (5:47) It's interesting because I think the vast majority of Thai restaurants that I've eaten in in the U.S. have not served sticky rice. However, I have also eaten at Pok Pok a couple of times and I do remember the sticky rice there. Speaker 1 (6:00) And we'll get into like how it's served in like a very like charismatic and memorable way typically in a Thai restaurant. I just say when I sat down to research this. This is a huge topic. This is like a staple food of like, you know, many, many cultures, mostly in East Asia. And we're not going to cover even a fraction of it today, but we'll like give you a taste. It's one of my favorite things. Speaker 2 (6:24) You know, I'm really glad that you're putting that disclaimer at the front, because when I was first thinking about this episode. I was imagining you were going to do like a short grain sticky rice. Oh, we'll talk Speaker 1 (6:33) about that also. Speaker 2 (6:34) But I'm glad to know that this episode is, like all of our episodes. Speaker 1 (6:40) Woefully incomplete. That's Speaker 2 (6:42) right. Speaker 1 (6:42) Okay. Yeah, I have some more memory lane, but we'll get to it when we get to talking about Japanese sticky rice. So what is this? All right, let's get Mr. Sticky Rice in here. Okay, okay. It's me. I'm sticky. Speaker 1 (6:56) All right. So Sticky Rice also got. So Speaker 2 (7:00) stupid. Speaker 1 (7:01) Would you let someone in if they showed up at your door and said, it's me, I'm Sticky. If it was one of your kids, sure. Anyone else, probably not. Speaker 2 (7:12) Okay. All right. Speaker 1 (7:18) So sticky rice, also known as glutinous rice, it is a – Class of rice, it is not just one variety by a long shot. It is a huge family of varieties, popular mostly in East Asia, especially in northern Thailand, Laos, Japan, China, and Korea. Ah, okay. But like not exclusively those places. When I say there's like a huge family of varieties, like we'll talk in a bit about how like Laos is really like the epicenter of sticky rice cuisine. And agriculturalists have identified over 5,000 individual cultivars of sticky rice. in Laos alone. Speaker 2 (7:53) Wow. Okay, well, let's, I want to understand why this stuff is sticky. Speaker 1 (7:57) Yeah, okay. Because Speaker 2 (7:58) it's so interesting, like so much rice, or at least so many other kinds of rice, like, I don't know, basmati or whatever, are prized for like these, separate fluffy grains. Whereas this, we're going for a totally different thing. So how does this happen? Oh Speaker 1 (8:12) yeah, there's going to be some science. Okay. So first of all, like you said, yeah, it can be short, medium or long grain. And the kernels, you can spot it because the kernels are very like opaque white when they're raw and then become translucent when cooked. So kind of the opposite of non-sticky rice. Okay. Sticky rice came to be when there was a mutation in the waxy gene, which is actually what the gene is called, that causes the rice to produce little or no amylose. Okay. Speaker 2 (8:37) Okay. Speaker 1 (8:37) So starch, as you may remember from school, is made up of two substances, amylose and amylopectin. Amylose makes starch like sort of like. Thick and powdery. And amylopectin is a very like long branchy molecule that sticks to itself really well and makes starchy things that are sticky, sticky. So Speaker